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A simple, yet profound idea

Our goal is to record the stories of American immigrants - whether they're naturalized citizens, permanent residents, refugees and asylees, or persons on temporary visas - and share them with as large of an audience as we can reach.

Who we are

Green Card Youth Voices UPDATE!

We are excited to announce that “Green Card Youth Voices: Immigration Stories from a Minneapolis High School” has been awarded the GOLD MEDAL AWARD for Best Multicultural Non Fiction Chapter Book in the Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards. The Moonbeam Awards were founded as a way to open up book awards in children’s publishing to all types of publishers and genres and to bring attention to the under-sung children’s books and their creators. Each category has gold, silver, and bronze level awards.

In September of 2015, Green Card Voices recorded 30 stories of immigrants from Wellstone International High School. These courageous youth coming from 13 countries sat with GCV team in the studio for several days and shared stories of family, school, change,
and dreams. After recording their stories, it became obvious to all that these powerful narratives needed to be shared with a wider audience. With the Wellstone teachers, Green Card Voices decided to create a book as a vehicle to generate awareness and take the stories outside the all immigrant classroom. The book was published in May, 2016.

Green Card Voices

Launched in 2013, Green Card Voices’ mission is to share various stories of our nation’s 40 million immigrants and put a human face to the current immigration debate. Simply, we hope to introduce immigrants to their neighbors.

Our organization focuses not only on capturing individual stories, but also on demonstrating the incredible breadth of the immigrant population. We want to show that immigrants work on our farms, serve our food, teach our children, create our technologies, and start our Fortune 500 companies.

Utilizing web-based video storytelling, we’re traveling the country and listening to those with the courage to share their journey, documenting each story in an authentic and unbiased way. The chronicles of those whose stories we capture are both awe-inspiring and thought provoking, portraying the diversity of the immigrant experience in the United States.

Immigrants have played a vital role at each turn in our nation’s history, and they continue to do so today. By sharing these stories, we can instill a sense of pride in our nation’s immigrant population and thank them for all of their contributions.

Here is what some people have to say about us:

Students identified strongly with the photos [and] I found it powerful.

— Katie Murphy-Olsen, Wellstone International High School

People are touched by the creativity and art of the exhibit.

— Dylan Fresco, Actor, Writer, Musician, Educator

[The Green Card Voices exhibit] gave [our immigrant students] hope. They saw the variety available for them to do with their lives.

— Tara Kennedy, Wellstone International High School

Green Card Voices gave the feeling of a mirror for immigrant families […]and provided a window for white students into other’s worlds.

— Kathryn Mackin, Mahtomedi High School

Gorgeous photos [in the exhibit]. They lend themselves to be engaging.

— Kathy Seipp, Robbinsdale Middle School

What a great service – thank you, thank you, thank you!

— Mark Ritchie, Minnesota Secretary of State

Thank you so much for connecting Minneapolis Central Library with an offer of a Green Card Voices display. The library is proud to celebrate the diversity of new Americans and pleased to recognize the contributions of immigrants to so many facets of American life. I know that many of our patrons paused at the display to read the inspirational stories and reflect on their own family history as immigrants to this country.

This is a very good project. You have succeeded in moving the discussion to a very human level, which is where it should be. People and their pictures tell their stories, not some hothead on TV or radio. Well done.

— Anonymous, Hosmer library visitor

I just wanted to express my gratitude for giving me the opportunity to interview with you and share my story. I really enjoyed meeting you and the rest of the group. You made me feel very welcomed. I really appreciate the work that you all are doing and I am very happy that I could help.

— Irma Marquez Trapero, Paralegal, immigrant from Mexico

I am so proud of our libraries and for Hosmer community’s initiative in particular. As a kid of a Duluth librarian this has always been in my blood, but I truly am proud to see collective work, including this fantastic photo exhibit. Thank you!

— Monica Travis, Hosmer library visitor

Love this project! Beautifully constructed and such a powerful evidence of the fact that every person has a story. Thanks for sharing. I can’t wait to share this site with students in Idaho!

— Teresa Clark, Storyteller, Author, Historian

The photo exhibit and stories of immigrants are great – it is very educational to address that immigrants are not only from Mexico.